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The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization.

Elaine Equi

Elaine Equi was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1953. She received a B.A. and an M.A. in English from Columbia College, where she taught a poetry workshop for several years after graduating. Along with her husband, Jerome Sala, she was active in Chicago’s performance poetry scene.

Equi’s first book, Federal Woman, was published in 1978 by Danaides press. She has written over ten books of poetry including, Voice-Over (Coffee House Press, 1999), chosen by Thom Gunn for the San Francisco State Poetry Award, The Cloud of Knowable Things (Coffee House Press, 2003), Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2007), which was shortlisted for the 2008 International Griffin Poetry Prize, and Click and Clone (Coffee House Press, 2011).

About her work, Equi has said:

I like the fact that for the most part, my poems are pretty accessible. I don’t consciously aim for that, but I do know that my sense of audience is always a mix of literary and non-literary types. On the other hand, I like to keep things (especially in terms of language) interesting. Over the years, my work has been informed by a wide range of styles including surrealist, concrete, and classical Chinese poetry, so it’s not unsophisticated—just willfully direct in a minimalist sort of way.

Equi lives in New York City and teaches in the Master of Fine Arts program at The New School.

by this poet

despite books kindled in electronic flames.
The locket of bookish love
still opens and shuts.
But its words have migrated
to a luminous elsewhere.
Neither completely oral nor written —
a somewhere in between.
Then will oak, willow,
birch, and olive poets return
to their digital tribes —
trees wander back to

When a poem
speaks by itself,
it has a spark
and can be considered
part of a divine
conversation.
Sometimes the poem weaves
like a basket around
two loaves of yellow bread.
"Break off a piece
of this April with its
raisin nipples," it says.
"And chew them slowly
under your pillow.
You belong in bed with me